Kohl's To Open 100 Small Format Stores

[arizonaguy]

I have numerous Costcos near me and they all have different layouts.

In some stores, diaper / formula / baby wipes are in the HBA area (near the pharmacy). In other stores they're co-located near the paper towels, toilet paper, trash bags, cleaning supplies (in the far back of the store).

In some stores prepackaged bread is located near the bakery in the back of the store, in other stores it's located down a food aisle towards the front of the store.

In both of the two above examples I've seen the same store with both configurations. Also some items (granola bars, etc.) are in the front center store aisles on some stores and are over on the side shelving in other stores.

It's designed so that even frequent shoppers have to "treasure hunt" through Costco.

This is the type of thing I've experienced with Costco. This is why I say it feels very much like what Hobby Lobby is doing. It forces you through the store and it is absolutely deliberate. It also worked on getting me to do many impulse buys of items that I was not actively looking to buy in the first place, and even if I had been actively looking to buy said items wouldn't have bought them from Costco, but since Costco kept moving stuff around and I noticed said items as I was turning a corner or looking for something else, Costco got those extra sales from me. And a few of those items are here at home 3-4 years later never opened or used so I really didn't need them...

Sam's Club does not do this. Items stay in the same place until the store remodels and they have various signs showing what is where. The only time I see some rearranging is when they have out of stocks and try to fill those holes in with overstock of other items.

Sam's Club does seem to do a yearly reset of the store. At my local store the alcohol / clothing / center store mix and locations were significantly changed during this reset. They generally don't change their perimeters though.

At Costco it's absolutely intentional. It's also why Costco's website is so spartan (seems like something from the late 1990s / early 2000s as opposed to anything modern). Costco's website doesn't display whether or not items are in stock at stores and they have a very limited selection of items available for in store pickup (usually electronics / other items which are locked up at a typical Costco anyways).

[rwsandiego]

I have numerous Costcos near me and they all have different layouts.

In some stores, diaper / formula / baby wipes are in the HBA area (near the pharmacy). In other stores they're co-located near the paper towels, toilet paper, trash bags, cleaning supplies (in the far back of the store).

In some stores prepackaged bread is located near the bakery in the back of the store, in other stores it's located down a food aisle towards the front of the store.

In both of the two above examples I've seen the same store with both configurations. Also some items (granola bars, etc.) are in the front center store aisles on some stores and are over on the side shelving in other stores.

It's designed so that even frequent shoppers have to "treasure hunt" through Costco.

This is extremely frustrating. There's only one Costco "near" me (and this is relative - it's all the way across Phoenix) and I don't care for the store, but the layout is fine. It's actually laid out the same way as the store I used to shop at in San Diego. The other night I was up in North Scottsdale and decided to stop at Costco. I couldn't find anything. I picked out what I wanted, headed to the checkout, but forgot almonds. Were they with all the other snacks in the front of the store like they are at the other Costcos? Oh, no - they were somewhere else. I almost gave up, but an employee showed me where they were. On the plus side, they were less Gestapo-like when checking my ID card.

Circling back to Kohl's, their stores are just too depressing. They used to have a nice, if sometimes quirky, assortment and it was fun to shop there. I could easily kill an hour at Kohl's. Now, they have nothing, and the place is depressing. On the plus side, the lack of merchandise makes for some good sight lines, so it is easy to see what little they have and walk out before wasting much time in the store.

[storewanderer]

This is extremely frustrating. There's only one Costco "near" me (and this is relative - it's all the way across Phoenix) and I don't care for the store, but the layout is fine. It's actually laid out the same way as the store I used to shop at in San Diego. The other night I was up in North Scottsdale and decided to stop at Costco. I couldn't find anything. I picked out what I wanted, headed to the checkout, but forgot almonds. Were they with all the other snacks in the front of the store like they are at the other Costcos? Oh, no - they were somewhere else. I almost gave up, but an employee showed me where they were. On the plus side, they were less Gestapo-like when checking my ID card.

Circling back to Kohl's, their stores are just too depressing. They used to have a nice, if sometimes quirky, assortment and it was fun to shop there. I could easily kill an hour at Kohl's. Now, they have nothing, and the place is depressing. On the plus side, the lack of merchandise makes for some good sight lines, so it is easy to see what little they have and walk out before wasting much time in the store.

Another one I recall at Costco that was always funny was dried fruit. Some stores had it back by bakery/produce. Other stores had it with candy/snacks. Other stores had it closer to nuts/trail mixes. And then of course there is the matter of if your preferred item is now an endcap item and no longer on a regular aisle, so you have to go hunt endcaps too.

Thinking about it, Costco's inconsistent, scattered, and constantly changing product placement and organization and the resulting item "hunt" is actually far worse and far more frustrating than anything I've experienced with Hobby Lobby because with Hobby Lobby once you learn the item location you are done and you go back a year later and it is still there. With Costco the item location changes every few weeks.